[ Updated: 22 Jan 2002 ]


  

  
  

  
  
  
2. The README file
  
  The ReadMe file is a guide to your program or program directory.
  Its technical purpose is to allow a user (or grader) to run the program and
  understand its organization.  In our case it is also an opportunity
  for you to point out special features of which you are proud, or
  limitations you are aware of.  Although we do not award a large
  proportion of points for this file's existence, please note that by
  using it you can ensure that we award full credit for things the
  program does, which is a big-point item.  So a sloppy,
  nonprofessional, or missing ReadMe can have serious secondary negative
  effects  on your grade, and a helpful informative one can have large
  positive effects.

  
  The ReadMe file should contain the following:
  
  
  Assignment name
  
  =============== 
  
  Assignment author(s)
  
  Assignment date
  
  Author(s)'s email address(es)
  
  Table of Contents: 
  
  I Files and contents
  
  What files are you turning in? What functions are in which
  files? 
  
  II VERY BRIEF Outline of algorithm
  
  For small problems this is probably not necessary.  For larger ones,
  you should describe your approach, the data and control structures you used,
  and the organization of the code into subroutines.

You can re-use this prose in your formal writeup.
  
  III User guide
  
  How does the user run the code? What are its inputs and what is
  their semantics?  What outputs should we expect?  What do error
  messages mean? What errors are not caught?
  
  IV Sample input and output
  

  This should convince us that your program works even before we run
  it. Annotate to explain what the different cases you show are
  illustrating. 
  

  
  
  
3. Submission Guidelines
  This is the current submission situation: when you are finished with
  your program, you should have the following:
  1. A README file in the form described above
  2. file(s) that include your functions

  
  Submission Steps:

Write a readable, complete, scientifically respectable, graphics-drenched,
mathematically justified report on your methods, experimental results, etc. etc.
There are other guidelines to help here.

Turn in code and writeup via WebCT.   Two files are best. One PDF for the
writeup, one .tar file for the project code, README, sample output, etc.